Tag: Award

It gives me great pleasure to announce that The Slider has been nominated for a Versatile Blogger award by Depression Is The Enemy. This is the second award The Slider has received and I am very humbled to have been nominated for this award by someone who writes extensively about mental health issues which means a lot to me. I am also always in awe of those who publicly share their own journeys with mental health issues as this is becoming an increasingly acute problem all across the world. I’ve already written a couple of articles on my blog focusing on mental health/self help topics and I intend to write many more pieces and even share more information about my own mental health challenges some time in the future.

I feel that the Versatile Blogger award fits very well with my blog as, since The Slider’s inception only six months ago, I have already written many articles covering an entire range of different topics from my passion for art, music, and poetry to my interests in travel, self-help/mental health issues and even technology.

7 random facts about me:

1. I love to travel the world and have already visited vast swathes of the globe. However the the trip I’m most proud of is my 2008 trip where I travelled overland (without planes and only via buses and at one point a motorboat) from Los Angeles all the way to the Argentinian city of Ushuaia located at the bottom of South America on the island of Tierra Del Fuego. I have also been to the most eastern point of the Americas (Ponta do Seixas in the city of Joao Pessoa in Brazil) and the most western point of Africa (Pointe Des Almadies in Dakar in Senegal).

2. I have a lazy eye.

3. I get obsessed easily over particular things I love. There are certain films I adore which I used to watch constantly. Get Carter, Sexy Beast, Chopper and more recently The Great Beauty are a handful of films I’ve watched way too many times although the film I’ve watched an insurmountable number of times is The Big Lebowski. Even today that film still has the power to light up my life and make me fall off the sofa in raging fits of laughter whenever I find myself taking life a bit too seriously.

4. I am a huge fan of all kinds of music. The first major concert I ever attended was a massive homecoming show by The Verve in their hometown of Wigan in 1998. It was a magical and electric concert and I’d never experienced anything quite like it in my life before. At the time The Verve were one of the biggest bands in the country. However the musician I am most proud of ever having had the pleasure to see (and even meet afterwards!) live is a very old Mississippi Delta bluesman named David “Honeyboy” Edwards. Born in 1915, he was a friend and contemporary of the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson who was rumoured to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for amazing out of this world guitar skills. What’s more, Honeyboy was also present on that fateful night in 1938 when Robert got poisoned by a jealous partner of one of the many women he was sleeping around with. He subsequently died a very slow and painful death.

5. Remaining on the subject of music, I got my first guitar when I was 13. It was an electric black and white Fender stratocaster. The first song I ever wrote was a song called Malcoordination (I will not say who it was about) when I was 15. Looking back on the song and lyrics now, I am so glad it was written during the time it was when there were no smartphones and the internet was much less developed. I formed my first band with a bunch of school friends when I was 16. We disbanded when I left school at 18. Since then until the age of 22 I’ve been in various other bands. From the ages of 19-23 I think I wrote enough songs to fill a few albums. Nowadays I haven’t been too involved with my music although perhaps one day I may get back into it.

6. I’ve been an artist since day one. My latest series of paintings was completed in South Africa earlier this year. You can view my entire art archive by visiting my website http://www.nicholaspeart.com

7. My favourite country is India. There is no other place on Earth quite like it. I will be returning later this year and boy am I looking forward to it!!

Some exciting news! The Slider has been nominated for a Liebster Award by the wonderful April Greene. Many thanks April!

The Liebster award is online recognition by bloggers to new and up and coming bloggers. When nominated for this award, you answer 11 questions set by the ‘nominator’ and then you nominate 11 of your favourite new bloggers (with less than 200 followers – although I think one can be a little flexible on this) and ask them 11 questions.

Here are April’s 11 questions for me with my answers

1.What’s the coolest award you’ve ever gotten?I’d say this one is pretty cool and winning the art cup at school many moons ago.

2. When did you last ride a public bus?Yesterday

3. Have you ever slipped when getting out of the shower and felt older than you actually are?Not yet

4. Which of your childhood friends are you saddest to have lost touch with, and what you do think they’re doing now?My earliest friend (and partner in crime) Tom. I reckon he’s either on a beach or in jail.

5. Honestly: Do you really consider it the three-second rule? Have you ever extended it to more seconds? If so, how many?3 seconds is too fast for my antique brain. 10 – 15 seconds for me.

6. Why do you think all those houseplants have died under your care?If there is one thing my mum would get really mad at me about it would be negligence of the houseplants. You see, I am just too Lebowski lazy to comply; it’s too much of a drag man!

7.Please describe the time you sung most humiliatingly in public.At my friend’s birthday party many years ago, we rented out a place for a mammoth non stop night of karaoke. I belted out I Want To Know What Love Is by The Foreigner (and subsequently ruined my vocal chords for the next three weeks). Yet in my defence my performance was just a drop in the ocean compared to another mate of mine who sang with all his might Delilah by Tom Jones while someone had the ingenious idea to pour champagne over his head during the chorus

8. Best popcorn topping. Go.I don’t think I’ve ever had a popcorn topping. What do you recommend?

9. Would you rather dream of a spider infestation or a snake infestation? Why?If they were venomous neither.

10. What is your least favorite color? Explain.Yellow. But not Indian yellow or the yellow of the sun which are both very beautiful. But the awful yellow hue you sometimes find on the walls of sterile hotel rooms; it makes me feel nauseous and drowns my spirits. Anyone with a modicum of sensitivity will know the power colour has on us. I highly recommend the small book Concerning The Spiritual In Art by the great artist Wassily Kandinsky.

11. Should 7-Eleven have discontinued their Sour Patch Watermelon Slurpee flavor? Why or why not?I am over on the other side of the pond

5. Is there a special place close to your heart in the world you have visited?

6. Can you recommend a great place to visit in your city/town/village which not many people know about?

7. The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?

8. Is there a particular work of art (painting, sculpture, drawing, photograph, conceptual work or just any artefact) that is close to your heart?

9. What was the first concert you attended?

10. What is your favourite inspirational quote?

11. When was the last time you cried?

What are the rules for the Liebster Award?

Once you accept a nomination, you are expected to complete the following steps:
– Thank and link to the blogger who nominated you
– Create a post on your blog, displaying the Liebster Award logo
– Answer the 11 questions assigned by the blogger who nominated you
– Provide rules/instructions for accepting the award
– Nominate 11 new favorite bloggers for the Liebster Award
– Come up with a list of 11 new questions for your nominees
– Notify the nominees
– Post your Liebster Award blog post link in the comments of your nominator’s Liebster Award Post